I baked a butternut squash whole this evening. Easy. Delicious.

Put it in on 400 degrees for an hour, then turned the oven off and let it stay for another 30 minutes. Sliced it open length-wise and served the fleshy part as a side-dish. SO GOOD! Really it didn't need any spicing up.

When it came out of the oven it looked like the picture on this blog:

I sort of went by this blog's post, but I did put 4 slits in the skin so the steam could vent out of it as it cooked:

9. I started growing butternut squash this year

and have become a convert. I've found the best recipe for Butternut Squash Soup and made up Butternut Squash Pie recipe myself. I've served both to guests and they've raved about them. Here it's about 95 cents a pound so a good sized squash will be under $3.00. From ONE large butternut squash I can make one batch of soup (easily 10 serving's worth) and 2 pies. How's that for stretching your grocery dollars?